Oh my: Angry Obama storms out of debt-ceiling negotiations; Update: “This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this”

posted at 8:25 pm on July 13, 2011 by Allahpundit

Between this and the Moody’s news, tomorrow ought to be fun on Wall Street. Per Slublog, remember during Campaign ’08 when this guy’s big selling point was his “first-class temperament”?

Also, am I right in thinking that the only two times O has walked out on a meeting are today and when he met with Bibi Netanyahu back in March of last year? That’s quite a record of indignation, champ. You really know how to get tough with the enemy.

Cantor said he told the president that the two sides remain so far apart at this point that he doubted they could get to $2.5 trillion in cuts (to match the debt increase requested by the administration, enough to get through the 2012 election) given the time available. President Obama has said he will not sign any increase to the debt ceiling less than that amount, and Cantor had previously insisted that the House would vote no more than one time to increase the debt limit. Cantor said he was willing to abandon his position in order to allow some kind of short-term measure to increase the debt limit and reassure credit markets while negotiations continue, and asked the president if he would be willing to consider this option.

At this point, Cantor explained, the president became “very agitated” and said he had “sat here long enough,” that “Ronald Reagan wouldn’t sit here like this” and “something’s got to give.” Obama then told Republicans they either needed to compromise on their insistence on a dollar for dollar ratio of spending cuts to debt increase or agree to a “grand bargain” including massive tax increases. Before walking out of the room, Cantor said, the president told him: “Eric, don’t call my bluff. I’m going to the American people with this.” He then “shoved back” and said “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The Democratic spin on what happened is that Cantor “rudely” interrupted The One mid-finger-wag and he got huffy and walked out. As for what he means by “going to the American people,” I don’t want to get my hopes up but we might be in store for another 45-minute lecture tomorrow morning about corporate jets. As an ironic gloss on this drama, read Chuck Todd’s take on how, in principle, Obama and Boehner aren’t all that far apart. If O publicly committed to a truly significant concession, like means-testing for Medicare or raising the eligibility age for Social Security, then maybe the GOP could be persuaded to take another look at letting the Bush tax cuts lapse for the wealthy. But since he won’t, they can’t. Said Boehner to a gaggle of reporters this afternoon, “Dealing with them the last couple months has been like dealing with Jell-o.”

Before he threw his tantrum, Obama also reportedly told Republicans today that Friday’s the deadline for deciding whether both sides should continue to pursue a real deficit-reduction deal or whether they should shift to looking for some sort of fallback plan a la McConnell to avoid default. So, the good news: The first stage of the debt-ceiling drama will kinda sorta be over in the next 48 hours. The bad news: Three more weeks of the next stage to come, guys. Three. More. Weeks.

Update: To steal a line from our Greenroom contributor Karl, here’s more of what the “adult in the room” had to say before he, er, left the room:

“This process is confirming what the American people think is the worst about Washington,” the president said. “Everyone is more interested in posturing, political position and protecting their base than in solving problems.”…

“I have shown enormous willingness to compromise and have taken huge heat for it,” he said, “but my responsibility is to the American people and there comes a point when I need to say, ‘Enough.'”

“It cannot all be on us,” the president said, arguing that Republicans need to give on the revenue side of things as Democrats are willing to do so on spending cuts.

Weigel also clarifies the terms of the actual dispute between O and Cantor. Cantor says they can get a deal for $1.5 trillion in cuts through the House. Problem is, the GOP’s vowed not to raise the debt ceiling by more than the amount in total cuts and a $1.5 trillion debt-ceiling hike won’t get us past the election next year. That makes The Perpetual Campaigner unhappy, so either the GOP will have to step back from its vow or O will have to agree to deal with the debt ceiling again — just a few months before election day, when the incentives on both sides to hold out will be even greater than they are now.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

* If McCain were President in the exact same circumstance, crr6 would be here lecturing people on the meaning of temperament, civility, maturity, how Obama’s superior temperament and negotiation skillz, coupled with his obviously superior intellect, would have been useful here, etc.

Interesting that under Obama we are as war like as ever . We still have Gitmo open. We are using drones at a level that would earn a AAAAA Hitler rating for G.Bush . Yet we have the gushing crr wondering why I call her a lapdog. Crr you are pretty dim.

Hey again tell us about how we on the right came up with that fancy name for Obama’s “Fast and Furious” program again.

Seriously, I know you are young but can you really be thankful of the amount of money spent (between TARP & Porkulous) with zero gains? And how can you, in good conscience, suggest that we borrow more and more money without cutting spending?

Cindy Munford on July 13, 2011 at 9:47 PM

Cindy,

Always, always remember….

Liberalism is a mental disease. You cannot expect the mentally ill to think rationally. Crr6 thinks we can borrow and spend forever. I know it’s crazy. You know it’s crazy. But to her it makes perfectly good sense. Trying to convince her is like trying to convince a paranoid schizophrenic that everyone isn’t out to get him.

* If McCain were President in the exact same circumstance, crr6 would be here lecturing people on the meaning of temperament, civility, maturity, how Obama’s superior temperament and negotiation skillz, coupled with his obviously superior intellect, would have been useful here, etc.

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.

Says the leader of the party that has presented no plan or presented a credible budget in almost 800 days.

Boehner told Bret Baier on Fox News Channel:

I think it is time for the president to put his plan on the table. Let the American people see just what the president is proposing. You can’t go out there and talk about some $4-trillion agreement to substantially change the fiscal situation here in Washington without any facts.

What kind of an idiot takes a President seriously that does not have the intelligence or leadership ability to offer their own solutions.

I wasn’t expecting to convince her but I sure would like to know how that mind works. I have three young adult children and their minds don’t work that way. But then, they all have pay checks and can see that socialism doesn’t work.

An AK-47 recovered at the murder site of US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has been identified as one of the rifles ATF agents permitted to be sold to a Mexican straw buyer and ‘illegally’ trafficked into Mexico. There are also links between Fast and Furious and the weapon used to kill ICE Agent Jaime Zapata.-Foreignpolicyblogs.com

Obama has never had to do this before. He doesn’t handle governing very well. He wants to dictate. Make edicts. Sign executive orders. Agitate. Seize things. Get his way.

He doesn’t do this negotiating thing very well. It’s so beneath him. He is the one, you know. God doesn’t give things up, why should he? The President/Citizen of the World or whatever just arrives and conquers. He speaks to adoring crowds who chant his name. He has children sing songs about him. Women faint at his presence. People build statues of him. He travels the world and see kings and queens and world leaders. he speaks to the United Nations. With a word he can start a war and kill hundreds or thousand by ordering a drone strike. He has the power to launch nuclear weapons. To start WWIII or to snuff out some tiny little country and to choose who lives or dies through one of his many soon to be death panels.

And yet, here he is being confronted by these little annoying Republicans, his enemies, who, not long ago, he could just shut the door on and flick them off with a “We Won” finger to their face.
Reality is suddenly creeping into his fantasy world. He has deluded himself the past 3 years that it will never end. He’ll always get his way. He’ll always be President, maybe someday dictator for life. But this meeting now, these negotiations, there’s something more to these meetings that is gnawing at his brain. Something more sinister and evil that is disturbing his world…. that they are a sign of something that is coming, the realization that 2012 is real. That one day in the not too distant future one of these Republicans, one of his enemies, may actually be President, and he won’t be.
It is not always and easy or safe thing to wake a narcissist from his delusions.

One of the most important symptoms of pathological narcissism (the Narcissistic Personality Disorder) is grandiosity. Grandiose fantasies (megalomaniac delusions of grandeur) permeate every aspect of the narcissist’s personality. They are the reason that the narcissist feels entitled to special treatment which is typically incommensurate with his real accomplishments. The Grandiosity Gap is the abyss between the narcissist’s self-image (as reified by his False Self) and reality.

When Narcissistic Supply is deficient, the narcissist de-compensates and acts out in a variety of ways. Narcissists often experience psychotic micro-episodes during therapy and when they suffer narcissistic injuries in a life crisis. But can the narcissist “go over the edge”?

Pathological narcissism is a spectrum of disorders. People suffering from the full blown, all-pervasive, personality distorting mental health disorder known as the Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) – are, indeed, more prone to violence than others.

With all due repsect.. Mr President GFY..this we / us sh-t is just that SH-T.. It’s all on us. We increase revenue as you suggest not only will jobs be lost but we as customers, shareholders and owenrs of any sort of retirement fund will either pay more, lose more or have less and debt will continue to rise

Do the anatomically impossible to yourself, cuz I’m tired of you doing it to me..

says she does not trust this president. we should not trust this president. This president has not earned our trust.

McConnells plan is stupid in so many words.

No reason to raise the debt limit. But the sheep in congress will raise it so she would vote no if she was in congress but if it passes (which thanks to the sheep it will) we should embrace Demint’s plan of cap cut and balance.

she seee no candidates out there who she can support at this time. she will decide by aug/sept.

“This process is confirming what the American people think is the worst about Washington,” the president said. “Everyone is more interested in posturing, political position and protecting their base than in solving problems.”…

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.

* If McCain were President in the exact same circumstance, crr6 would be here lecturing people on the meaning of temperament, civility, maturity, how Obama’s superior temperament and negotiation skillz, coupled with his obviously superior intellect, would have been useful here, etc.

Tell you what. Keep Obama out of the meetings, and let Cantor and Boehner deal with Pelosi and Hoyer. Then let the Crats worry about Obama. He will be their problem.

paul1149 on July 13, 2011 at 9:53 PM

I’ve been thinking about Dingy’s part in this, which appears to be minimal. Is part of little Bammie’s frustration the fact that they are laying so low? Shouldn’t the democratically controlled Senate be running interference for little Bammie?

Granted, Dingy is no mental giant, and I can’t see him going toe to toe with people like Cantor and Ryan. He’s more like that guy always shuffling down the hall at the old folks home, trying to get out the locked door. But is there any democratic in the Senate that should be representing the dem side in these meetings?

If McCain were President in the exact same circumstance, crr6 would be here lecturing people on the meaning of temperament, civility, maturity, how Obama’s superior temperament and negotiation skillz, coupled with his obviously superior intellect, would have been useful here, etc.

Good Lt on July 13, 2011 at 9:47 PM

If McCain was president and acting like Obama I would be calling him out too. I’m tired of these politicans more worried about electiosn than about the good of the country. Just tired of the R vs D fight. I want a leader that places the good of the country and her citizens first for once.

It’s amazing how the 2012 ads just write themselves with Obama’s record. The GOP should be trumpeting this RIGHT NOW!!! Blasting it on TV and radio ads every day fom now until Novemeber 2012. That would ensure an Obama loss irrespective of whom we place on the GOP’s ticket!

Then have the House GOP pass bills, one by one, ordering Obama to make certain kinds of payments with the revenue the government gets, and get out in front of the camera to show that the GOP is trying to keep the entitlements going, and that Reid/Obama are being intransigent and preventing Granny from getting her check.

Seriously, I know you are young but can you really be thankful of the amount of money spent (between TARP & Porkulous) with zero gains? And how can you, in good conscience, suggest that we borrow more and more money without cutting spending?

Cindy Munford on July 13, 2011 at 9:47 PM

Cindy,

1) I (and pretty much anyone outside the confines of the Hotair commentariat) don’t agree there have been “zero” gains from TARP and the Stimulus bill. Why’s that? Because there is almost no objective evidence supporting your position, and a wealth of evidence suggesting both of those measures helped the US economy a great deal (especially TARP).

2) I don’t think anyone’s arguing we shouldn’t cut any spending. What we’re suggesting is that if you’re truly concerned about the deficit, you should agree that tax cuts should be balanced with the elimination of tax loopholes and/or the end the Bush tax cuts.

I get to raise our level of indebtedness to astronomical levels and then, to get a deal to raise the limit on our indebtedness (which limit would never have mattered had I not borrowed every last dime in the piggy bank), you have to agree to raise taxes to cover it.

If that’s his idea of leadership then I totally agree and I’d like to be the first one to buy either a bridge or a used car from that man. This Hope & Change elixir is simply delicious!

* If McCain were President in the exact same circumstance, crr6 would be here lecturing people on the meaning of temperament, civility, maturity, how Obama’s superior temperament and negotiation skillz, coupled with his obviously superior intellect, would have been useful here, etc.

Senator Graham said Republicans should be willing to accept a deal that curbs entitlement spending and increases tax revenues by closing loopholes.

“To me, that makes sense,” he said. “That way you don’t raise tax rates, but you do generate new revenue by closing loopholes. You’re giving money away to a few people at the expense of many, and I think it’s time to reevaluate that.”

Also, am I right in thinking that the only two times O has walked out on a meeting are today and when he met with Bibi Netanyahu back in March of last year?

Someone else probably mentioned it, but if not, isn’t it odd that the two blow-ups occurred with two Jews. Looks like O doesn’t like Jewish people.

pearson on July 13, 2011 at 10:21 PM

No surprise, all his life he has surrounded himself with rabid jew-hating knuckle-draggers like Reverend Wright and the three nutty broads in the White House. The center of jew-hatred in the USA today is in the black radical left.

BTW, I read somewhere today that Mayor Ed Koch will endorse the Republican for Weiner’s seat in protest over little Bammie’s treatment of Israel.

Wow, unemployment has exploded, housing is still in the dump, creditors got screwed out of what a regular bankruptcy court would have given them if GM & Chrysler would have used existing courts and laws. Add to that the revenue quarters keep getting revised downward from a lackluster starting figures and I can see why you would be excited about our strides. Let me at least admire your optimist. I will gladly turn my Pollyanna designation over to you, wear it with pride.

Cannot believe Barry compared himself to Reagan. Here’s a little history lesson, sonny. Reagan never, ever had a hissy fit, and he didn’t go into negotiations of any sort without a plan of his own. He was a leader. You’re a child.

Obama also reportedly told Republicans today that Friday’s the deadline for deciding whether both sides should continue to pursue a real deficit-reduction deal or whether they should shift to looking for some sort of fallback plan a la McConnell to avoid default.

And there’s the rub. The fallback plan. McConnells plan. Give him more authority, he takes it, runs with it, and becomes even more of a dicator than he is now. *Siiiiiiiiigh*

2) I don’t think anyone’s arguing we shouldn’t cut any spending. What we’re suggesting is that if you’re truly concerned about the deficit, you should agree that tax cuts should be balanced with the elimination of tax loopholes and/or the end the Bush tax cuts.

crr6 on July 13, 2011 at 10:19 PM

You see, your problem is you think we are concerned about increasing government revenues stolen property. I don’t give two craps about raising “revenue”. Any government “revenue” is a loss for productive members of society. We want to cut government “revenue” as much as possible and then go out and slash it some more. Government “revenue” is no more than extortion and theft. I don’t care where the “revenue” comes from, I want the government to lose as much “revenue” as possible and then cut their spending to match the lower amount of stolen property the government is taking in.

America, to be “STYLISH”, invited this self-absorbed hedonist into their house. He repaid them by stripping the wallpaper off the walls, trashing the appliances,totaling the computers,smashing windows, punching holes in the drywall, setting fire to the kitchen and poisoning all the pets. Time to confront him while the house is still standing and the children are still breathing.

I read this on a prog forum – can anyone clarify this for me? I so badly want to respond but words fail me!

…….”I was struck by the people who seemed to have no idea what the debt ceiling is, what it means if the US defaults (one seemed to think it would be like a govt shutdown), what is behind this whole made-up “crisis”. The media does a terrible job of providing context – as in, how many times the debt limit has been raised in the past, why we have a debt limit in the first place (I can’t explain that, but it was enacted around WWI). People think if it’s raised, there will be more spending, not that it’s to be able to pay for spending that’s already been committed to – hence, the Representative from Georgia (R, of course) who wants to lower the debt limit (sigh).”

Because there is almost no objective evidence supporting your position, and a wealth of evidence suggesting both of those measures helped the US economy a great deal (especially TARP).

crr6 on July 13, 2011 at 10:19 PM

Wrong. The majority of macroeconomic evidence suggests that TARP 2 and Porkulus have been materially ineffectual.

I don’t think anyone’s arguing we shouldn’t cut any spending.

Ha ha. Are you trying to be funny??? Obama and democrats are doing exactly that! They are arguing against the spending cuts that the Republicans are asking for in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.

What we’re suggesting is that if you’re truly concerned about the deficit, you should agree that tax cuts should be balanced with the elimination of tax loopholes and/or the end the Bush tax cuts.

What your suggesting is dead wrong. If you’re truly concerned about the deficit, then you should agree to keep spending and taxes low so that the GDP can grow and spur more tax revenue.